


Running on Empty

by spideywhiteys



Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [71]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Airplane Crashes, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Blood and Injury, F/M, Huddling For Warmth, Minor description of corpses, Mutual Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Uchiha Madara, Slight Age Difference, Stranded AU, Survival Horror, Wilderness Survival, basically a Lost au lol, both are adults, madara and Sasuke are cousins, sakura is going through med school
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 21:19:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30011082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideywhiteys/pseuds/spideywhiteys
Summary: Haruno Sakura is on her way back home during spring break. She’s working her way through med school, trying to get over her long-standing crush on Uchiha Sasuke, and hoping that she can finally make something of a life for herself.Haruno Sakura doesn’t make it home.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Madara
Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [71]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2086938
Comments: 8
Kudos: 49





	Running on Empty

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt 71: Stranded AU / Madara + Sakura

She wakes to thunderous screeching and violent vibrations. The drowsiness dissipates immediately, and her jade green eyes fly open as she grasps the armrests at her sides. Screams fill her ears, right alongside the clamorous tremble of metal. Panic sits heavy like a stone in her throat. She chokes on it, shakes with it just as the plane does. Sakura has long since grown out of her childish weakness, but there is no control to be grasped here. All her trust lies in a flying hunk of metal, and it’s failing. 

They’re tumbling from the sky, screaming and rattling and she can’t believe that this is how it ends. Four hours ago Sakura stepped on a plane to Konoha, eager to see her friends and parents over spring break. She’s studying abroad this semester, across the ocean. The opportunity to participate in Doctors Without Borders was too good to pass up. When the option came up, it was an easy decision to make. It gave her leverage into the world she wanted to be in, the world she wanted to  _ help _ in — and it...got her away from Uchiha Sasuke.

Oh god, she was about to die before completely getting over one of her best friends. She was about to die without ever dating anyone  _ ever, _ because she’d been hung up on Sasuke for fifteen years. Pining helplessly over a guy who, at first, never gave her the time of day, and then moved on to become one of her closest friends. Her feelings sat out in the open, obvious and uncomfortable. It got worse when everyone else started pairing off. Naruto and Hinata, Sai and Ino, Shikamaru and Temari — even Chouji got with Karui, and for the longest time everyone assumed his one true love was food.

Sasuke turned her down many times. Each time it left her heartbroken, each time she wondered if maybe next time would be better. She shouldn’t have spent that time hoping. She should have spent it trying to move on. She loves Sasuke, really, and he loves her. But their love isn’t the same and it’s not his fault, because you can’t control your heart and some people aren’t made for romance. Some, like Sasuke, prefer simple companionship, or just — not her. He just doesn’t want her, and she needs to learn to be okay with that.

She’s about to die and she’s only halfway there. She’s about to die and there’s so much more she wants to do with her life. A million things. She wants to graduate, wants to be a  _ doctor, _ wants to love and be loved — wants to fulfill those girlish dreams of getting married in all white, holding a bouquet of flowers, plans of a house and a cat and children in the future.

Sakura grits her teeth, indignant at the idea of an early death. Sure, maybe she wasn’t the easiest child in the world growing up, but she sure as hell hasn’t done anything to deserve  _ this! _

The plane continues beeping and creaking, shaking so hard she knows if she comes out of this alive, it’s going to be with a severe case of whiplash. Sakura is seated right next to the aisle, and she’s not sure if it would have been better to have one by the window, so at least she could watch their downfall — or have a view of the world as the last thing she sees rather than just the back of a dull chair.

She tries to remember the safety position to take in case of a crash, but no one ever pays attention to it. She’s sure regretting that callous nature now.

Her world is ending.

Sakura closes her eyes. The last thing she sees will not be the seat of a commercial air flight, but instead the conjured images of her loved ones pressed to the backs of her eyelids. She keeps her mouth firmly shut as everyone screams and cries around her. At this point she feels numb, full of adrenaline and shock, most likely. But if she is to die she will not die screaming. It’s not fair, but it’s what’s happening. Sakura inhales and exhales, shakes but does not shatter. She thinks of better times, of friends and family and the life she’s lived up to now.

She —

* * *

She wakes up. This time it is not to a shaking, sinking plane and the sounds of terror all around. 

There is only the creaking, the wind, and the pain.

Sakura takes in a gasping breath, blinking furiously. She’s alive.

_ She’s alive. _

Hanging at a slant, her legs numb with the pressure of the seatbelt keeping her in place, Sakura quickly takes in where she is. A part of the plane, but not the whole of it. There’s only about three rows ahead of her, and then what looks like sandy earth. The angle she’s hanging at is a little less than forty-five degrees, sunlight streaming in from behind. She coughs, and her body throbs with pain. It’s not as terrible as she anticipated, though her head feels a bit foggy and blood is steadily dripping from her head onto the half-crushed seat in front of her. 

She’s not dead.

Sakura feels along her head for the source of blood, and winces when she presses against bruised, sore flesh in the center of her forehead. The skin is split, but the cut doesn’t feel terribly huge. It’s just bleeding a lot, as all head wounds do. She hisses between her teeth. 

Everything hurts, but she can still move. No broken bones, or at least none she can sense at the moment. Adrenaline is probably still surging through her veins. Sakura grits her teeth and braces herself to unbuckle the seat belt. She tries not to think about how the seat beside her is warped and ruined, the passenger missing and part of the wall torn out. 

She can’t even remember the woman who’d been sitting there. Sakura had been more concerned with sleeping through the flight after the rough night she’d had.

The buckle releases with a snap, and Sakura falls forward into the next seat. She groans, but the feeling of blood sinking back into her legs is more painful than the short drop. It’s enough to have her breathing deeply through her teeth, eyes scrunched against the pain.

It’s awkward to maneuver, but she eventually brings herself to move once the worst of the pain has receded. She glances up and lets out a guttural sound of relief upon seeing that the little storage cabin above her seat is still shut — miraculously. It opens easily with the simple press of a button, and she yelps when the bags within tumble out. 

Her carry-on is a standard size, filled with the essentials needed in case of emergency. Sakura may not have expected something like a  _ plane crash _ to happen, but she’d packed for the possibility of her luggage getting lost. A simple change of clothes, toothbrush and toiletries, and a first aid kid. 

Open wounds in this situation are probably the worst way to get an infection or sepsis. Sakura ignores her own wound for a moment and very carefully moves her way through the small bit of plane cabin left, checking on the people still hanging in their seats.

She flinches at the feel of cold flesh under her fingers. Swallows tightly around the lump in her throat when she only has to glance at a few to see glassy eyes and terror stricken faces frozen in time. Still, she makes her way around to the others, heart breaking every time she presses her fingers to an unmoving pulse point. She shakes, she trembles — but she doesn’t break. She swallows down the tears for another time, because right now she needs to be a doctor, she needs to be the adult she isn’t sure how to be. 

Sakura considers her supplies. It’s not worth wasting a sanitizing wipe on her hands just yet, not until she sees how many people are still alive and kicking. There should be more first aid kits in the plane, if she can find the other parts of it and if they weren’t lost in the sky somewhere. 

If she keeps thinking about this, she might go crazy.

Sakura crawls her way out of the gaping hole by her seat, watching for sharp metal. The outside is brightly lit, searing her eyes and making her squint. She stumbles, slipping from the remains of the plane and landing with a soft thud in sand. It’s warm, almost to the point of unpleasantness. Before her is an expanse of sand, the ocean crashing against the shore just meters away.

_ Oh, god. _

In one direction, sheer ocean. In the other, a forest of some kind. 

“You have to be kidding me.” She mutters, jade eyes wide with disbelief. There’s no way she’s landed on an island of all places, like some  _ castaway _ reject. 

“Hello?” She calls out, moving through the sand with one hand held up to cast a shadow over her eyes. “Is anyone there? Anyone injured?”

Across the sand is strewn bits of wreckage and luggage. Among a particular piece of warped metal she finds what must be the remains of a person, but they are more blood and muscle than anything that could pass as human. It’s horrific, and the smell of pure copper and human waste makes her gag. She swallows back her disgust, sympathy for the poor soul seeping into her expression. 

“Hey.”

Sakura whirls around, hand to her chest. The voice is deep, and the man it belongs to is tall and pale. There’s blood slipping from his split lip and a line of it dripping from his hairline. His hair is a wreck, long and spiking in every direction. The terrible crash certainly didn’t help. His eyes are just as dark, and there’s something in his facial features that reminds her of Sasuke. At first glance, he might be ten years older than her at most.

“Oh—Oh, hello.” She clears her throat. “Are you injured anywhere else aside from the obvious? I have a first aid kit with me and I’m a doctor. Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“I’m working my way through schooling.” She acquiesces. 

He eyes her for a moment. “I’m in good shape, all things considered.”

“Just the head wound?”

“Just the head wound.”

She doesn’t believe that for a second. He’s listing slightly to one side to keep weight off of one leg. There’s no sign of pain in his face, but she can read  _ Sasuke’s _ face, so she sure as hell can read this guy’s.

“Right.” She quirks a corner of her mouth, “And your left knee is feeling perfectly okay, I suppose.”

If the man is surprised, he doesn’t show it. Instead his eyes narrow, mouth curling at the corners like he’s impressed. “What’s your name, Doctor?”

She stands up a little straighter, blood tacky against her face and body throbbing. “Haruno Sakura.”

“Doctor Sakura,” he murmurs, voice like smoke and silk and something dangerous. “I am in your hands.”


End file.
